“And pleathant nightmareth,” mumbled Tommy from under the blanket.  She was found curled up in a ball when the guardian went over to see that the little girl was comfortable for the night.  The light was blown out just as Harriet sought her cot.  Miss Elting was in bed a moment afterwards, and peace and quiet again settled over the clumsy “Red Rover.”  This peace, however, was not destined to last long.  It was to be rudely broken ere the morning dawned.  From down the lake a canoe was coming, propelled swiftly and silently by a pair of muscular arms.  The canoe, if it continued on its present course, would hit the “Red Rover” fairly on its nose.  But just before reaching the houseboat, the canoe veered to one side a little and the paddle trailed the water behind.  The canoe glided along to one side of the “Red Rover,” then stopped.

CHAPTER XVI

A MIDNIGHT VISITOR

The same dark canoe that Harriet Burrell had seen shoot out into the lake before her the night she was reconnoitering near the camp of the Tramp Club was now hovering about the houseboat.  It would have appeared almost uncanny to one not experienced in canoeing to observe the absolute noiselessness with which the frail little craft was propelled about the larger boat.  When it was turned, it was as though the boat were swinging on a pivot.  When the half of its length was let down to the water after such a swing, there followed not the slightest suggestion of a splash.

Lulled by the gentle lapping of the water against the side of the boat, the Meadow-Brook Girls slept soundly.  On shore the boys of the Tramp Club also were sleeping.  The girls on board the “Red Rover,” as already mentioned, had no fear of a second attack that night, nor had the youthful pirates the slightest intention of repeating the experiment that had turned out so badly for them and so triumphantly for the Meadow-Brook Girls.  It was quite evident that the newcomer did not belong to the Tramp Club.  His face looked dark and swarthy in the moonlight.  He had straight black hair and high cheek bones and there was a revengeful light in his sharp black eyes as he scanned the silent houseboat.

Once more the canoe shifted its position and slid to a point directly under one of the little windows.  The window was open, the curtains were streaming out through the opening.  The intruder stood up in his canoe without disturbing its balance in the least.

Just about this time Tommy Thompson awoke with a little gasp.  She had been dreaming that Buster, in the guise of a pirate, was trying to smother her with a sofa pillow.  Tommy had been skirting the edge of one of the “pleathant nightmareth” she had prophesied for the girls on retiring.  She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes.  Suddenly she uttered a terrified scream.

For the second time that night the Meadow-Brook Girls scrambled from their beds in alarm.